Antidrip device for bottom cementing machines



Jan. 16, 1951 J. w. PRATT 2,538,039

ANTIDRIP DEVICE FOR BOTTOM CEMENTING MACHINES Filed Sept. 20, 1947 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jan. 16, 1951 J. w. PRATT 2,538,039

ANTIDRIP DEVICE FOR BOTTOM CEMENTING MACHINES Filed Sept. 20, 1947 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Jan. 16, 1951 ANTIDRIP DEVICE FOR BOTTOM OEMEN TING MACHINES John William Pratt, Leicester, England, assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Flemington, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application September 20, 1947, Serial N 0. 775,303 In Great Britain October 15, 1946 1 Claim.

This invention relates to devices for preventing any surplus coating material, such as cement from dripping from the applying brush of a machine of the type in which cement is supplied to the upper surface of a brush driven on a horizontal axis and the work is presented to a lower surface thereof.

It has been notoriou that machines of this general type would accumulate a surplus of cement upon the applying brush when no work was being presented to the machine and that after only a few minutes this surplus would drip to the floor. Such an arrangement is not only wasteful but it is untidy and in the case of certain cements involves added danger of fire.

An object of the invention i to prevent dripping from a rotatable cement applying brush which is supplied from above and to improve the control of the quantity of cement taken from the machine by the brush.

In the illustrated machine a control plate having a transverse opening is inserted between the discharge openin of the container and the top of the brush. The plate is constructed to rub against the tips of the bristle as they leave it thereby to control the quantity of cement delivered and is provided with scraper surface and recesses which draw back toward the center of the brush any cement which has spread out to the margin of the periphery or which tends to run down the sides thereof, The arrangement is such that unused cement is forced back into the receptacle and the margins of the periphery of the brush are kept clean.

These and other features of the invention will best be understood from a consideration of the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which,

Fig. l is a side elevation of the head of a machine in which the present invention is embodied;

Fig. 2 is a similar view, but with parts broken away and on a larger scale, of those parts which are immediately adjacent to the brush;

Fig. 3 is a detail vertical section on the line III--III of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a detail front elevation on the scale of Fig. 2;

Fig, 5 is a vertical section on the line VV of Fig. 2 enlarged;

Fig. 6 is a view looking up at the underside of the control plate; and

Fig. '7 is a section on the broken line VII-VII of Fig. 5.

In the application of cement to the bottoms of shoes preparatory to the application of soles thereto, use is made of a cylindrical brush l0 which is mounted on a driven shaft I2 carried in a frame M which is mounted at the head of a column l6. As shown, the width of the brush is about half its diameter. Cement is delivered to the upper side of this brush from an inverted receptacle in the form of a can l8 threaded in a cup 20 (Fig, 2) from which the cement flows downwardly through a passage 22 in a neck 23 whenever a valve 24 (Fig. 5') is opened by the proper positioning of a hand lever 26 (Fig. 4). This valve is held in the neck by a cap plate 21. The cements used for this kind of work are frequently quite viscous and, therefore, provision is made for admitting air to the uppersurface ofthecement in the can it through a tube 28 (Fig. 2), while, if desired, a source of compressed air (not shown) may be connected to the tube 28 through an inlet 30 having a hand cock 3 I.

The quantity of cement removed by the brush depends upon the wiping contact of a surface 32 (Fig. 5) at the leaving side of a curved control plate 34 which is interposed between a delivery passage 36 below the valve 24 and the periphery of the brush, this plate being attached by screws 38 to the lower end of the cup 20, The distance between this surface 32 and the center of the brush may conveniently be controlled by mountin the cup 20 and hence the plate 34 for adjustment toward and away from the brush.

To this end the frame [4 of the machine is provided with a bracket 40 (Fig. 2) which is bolted thereto and which is provided with a laterally extending arm 42. In the body of the bracket is a stud 44 having a reduced end 46 on which there is clamped a supporting arm 48 (Fig. 3) which is provided with a forwardly extending ledge 50. The cup 29 is adjustably supported on this ledge 50 by means of clamping screws 52 which pass through slots in an arm 54 extending laterally from the cup and having a down-turned end 56 in which is mounted an adjusting screw 58 which contacts with the end of the ledge 50 and enables careful adjustment in a horizontal direction of the cup and its arm 54 before the clamping screws 52 are tightened. This adjustment will be used primarily in setting up the machine to position the plate 34 so that it is approximately concentric to the brush.

Provision is also made for adjusting the wiping surface 32 of the control plate 34 approximately radially of the brush to control the exact quantity of cement on the brush and to compensate for the wear of the bristles.

For such accurate control, the arm 48 and the stud 44, 46 to which the arm is clamped may be turned around the axis of the stud 44 when a thumb screw 60 bearing on the stud is loosened. This swinging movement of the arm 48 and the receptacle carried thereby is facilitated by the provision of a finger operated shaft 62 which is journaled in the depending arm Q2 of the bracket 40 and which has at its end an eccentric pin 8d received in a notch 66 in the arm 48 and capable of easily producing a small movement of that arm when the thumb screw 60 has been loosened and the finger shaft 62 turned. The exact range of movement of the arm 48 may be determined by means of abutment screws 68 and which are threaded through portions of the arm 68 above and below the notch 56, with their ends in contact with the eccentric pin 64. After these screws have been adjusted to the desired position they are held there by locknuts.

It is intended that the adjustment of the control surface 32 with respect to the bristles shall allow only so much cement to be taken out by the brush as will be used up by work presented to the brush. However, it will be understood that the suppl of work is not always constant and that carelessness on the part of an operator may allow the machine to run idle for some few minutes without the valve 24 having been closed in the meantime. Accordingly, the control plate St has been constructed to overcome such difficul- 3.

ties. For ease of discussion, the forward portion of this plate is shown in Fig. 7 as formed in three layers but it may equally well be an integral structure. In the first place the plate has a transverse slot 12 in the innermost layer or septum through which the cement normally flows down uponthe brush and is removed in such quantities as is permitted by the control surface 32. However, the application of work to the brush may sometimes cause the cement to be spread over the periphery thereof in such a way that quantities accumulate near the marginal corners and even run over the sides of the brush. This difficulty is offset, however, by providing the control plate with shelves spaced vertically from said plate and having along adjacent edges slightly undercut shoulders 74 and 16 which converge forwardly toward the control surface 32 and the delivery opening. The distance between these edges at the entering or right side in Fig. 6 is slightly less than the Width of the brush to the end that the ends of the bristles 80 of the brush Eli are squeezed inwardly as they move forwardly. As a result, the cement is urged back toward the central portion of the periphery and if, because of an extended interval between the presentation of pieces of work, there is an undesired quantity of cement on the periphery of the brush, it will be forced upwardly through the delivery opening l2, It will be noted, furthermore, that the spacing of the shelves from the plat or its inner septum 84 provides recesses 82 on each side which widen toward the opening and finally merge with it. Any surplus of cement taken from the peripheral margins or side edges of the bristles may flow into said recesses as it is dragged along by contact with cement on the brush toward the delivery opening 72 into which the recesses open. It will be noted that the control surface 32 is inclined with respect to the circumference of the brush and that as a consequence a transverse pocket 86 i is formed in which the cement passing through the delivery opening 12 is taken up by the bristles just before they reach the control surface 32. As the bristles reach this pocket they will be released from the deflecting effect of the shoulders i l, 16 and allowed to spring back to their natural position, the tendency being to keep the useful band of cement near the central portion of the periphery of the brush and to avoid any tendency to apply so much cement to the lateral margins that it might drip when no work is presented to the brush.

In the operation of the machine a lasted shoe a will be held in inverted position and the shoe bottom will be presented to the lowermost portion of the rotating brush [8 so as to spread cement over the desired area of the shoe bottom.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

In a shoe bottom coating machine,a driven cylindrical brush, means for supplying coating material to an upper portion of said brush and a control plate interposed between said sup-plying means and the brush, said control plate having a delivery slot extending transversely thereof, and having a control surface dragging on the bristlesas they leave the plate, the portion of the ate to the rear of said delivery opening having a thin septum, spaced below which are inwardly projecting shelves having forwardly converging adjacent edges for engagement with the sides of the bristles near their tips, said shelves thus providing recesses, between them and the septum, which widen forwardly and open into the delivery opening to permit surplus cement scraped off by the shoulders to move into the recesses andthus travel back to said op ning.

JOHN WILLIAM PRATT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Numb-er Name Date 778,709 Robertson Dec. 2'7,v 1904 1,013,735 Brogan Jan. 2, 1912 

